Day and team-mate Mikey Porter had already wrapped up the drivers’ and teams’ titles for Forsetti Motorsport in the opening rain-affected sprint race on Saturday afternoon. But it was the incredible battle between the black and green Aston Martin and the yellow McLaren in the hour-long endurance race that will leave a lasting memory.
RACE 1
Zac Meakin negotiated atrocious conditions on Saturday afternoon to deliver Elite its first sprint race victory of the season, as Porter safely gathered the points he needed to confirm the Forsetti pair as 2024 champions.
The GT4WS field had at least managed to complete a free practice session first thing on Saturday morning before persistently heavy rain wiped out any serious running for other categories. In the afternoon, the grid was formed from those practice times for what turned out to be the only race of the day to run to full distance, with the Elite McLaren Artura starting from pole position.
Such was the soaking state of play, the field had to wait until lap six before it could be released for racing – and when it withdrew it was immediately called back out again. Meakin had led W&S Motorsport’s Pro-Am driver Max Kronberg and Wimmer Werk Motorsport’s Ivan Ekelchik through the first racing lap, as Marcel Marchewicz slipped inside Daniel Drexel’s Porsche which ran wide through Turn 5. As Drexel put the power down on the exit, he lost the Cayman which slammed nose-first into the wall on the outside and sustained heavy damage.
Once the car had been removed, that left time for just three full laps of racing. Meakin once again made a clean restart and secured the victory from impressive Pro-Am winner Kronberg. Ekelchik ran wide at Turn 7 on the first lap after the restart and dropped a couple of places, which allowed Marchewicz to claim the final step of the podium. Porter was fourth from sixth on the grid to clinch the title.
“I was expecting the safety car to go on the second lap, so I prepared everything then,” said Meakin. “To my surprise, it stayed on. Once we did start I managed to rip away, then unfortunately the incident happened for another safety car. But I managed to replicate the restart, get away and it was comfortable. The conditions were slippery, but not too bad. It was raceable. I’d like more rain tomorrow, but I don’t think we’ll get it sadly.”
Porter said he didn’t feel too much pressure as he did what he had to do to secure the title. “I just had to make sure I didn’t make a mistake and kept clear. Most of it was behind the safety car, so I just kept it on track and made sure I finished.”
SR Motorsport’s Enrico Förderer was seventh overall and first in the Cayman Trophy class, while Max Huber won a battle with NM Racing Mercedes team-mate Alberto De Martin for Am honours in eighth overall.
RACE 2
Lebbon blew Elite’s hopes of a sprint race double on a sunny Sunday morning. Despite the much-improved conditions the track remained greasy as the GT4WS field took the start – and the surface caught out Lebbon who skated straight on at Turn 1 from his pole position. But it did at least trigger a fantastic comeback from the McLaren driver.
Lebbon’s error left Josef Knopp with the lead in W&S Motorsport’s Porsche Cayman. Meanwhile, fellow Cayman driver Raphael Rennhofer was spun around by Forsetti’s Day who had started only fifth on the grid.
Knopp immediately found himself under increasing pressure from Joel Mesch in his Schnitzelalm Mercedes, the latter pulling a great move on the outside of Turn 5 on lap six to take the lead. Day was soon up to second, passing the Cayman at Turn 9 on the following lap. But his contact with Rennhofer would come back to haunt him, as the Aston Martin driver was handed a drive-through penalty. Day made a point of passing Mesch for the lead before taking his punishment on lap 11.
Meanwhile, Lebbon was on a charge in the yellow McLaren. He’d dropped to 10th on the opening lap, but once Day had pitted was up to second and closing fast on Mesch. As the 30-minute race entered its closing stages, the Mercedes and McLaren were tied together, but Lebbon just ran out of time and opportunities to take what would have been a dramatic comeback victory.
“I was definitely nervous over those final laps,” said Mesch. “I said going into the weekend the McLaren would have insane pace and that’s what we saw. It was really close, one lap further I wouldn’t have made it. But here I am, victory! What more could I want? The first braking zone was really slippery, which is when the McLaren went off and also the Porsche behind me. It was a big mess. I was a bit surprised when I saw the McLaren come back at me.”
Lebbon rued his mistake at the first corner. “But I recovered to P2 and almost a win,” he said. “It was good in the end. We definitely had a pace advantage having caught him. We would have got him in the end but we ran out of laps.”
Knopp lost a podium finish when Emil Gjerdrum’s CV Performance Mercedes knocked him into a spin at Turn 1. Gjerdrum was handed a drive-through, which he failed to serve and it was translated into a time penalty which dropped him from third on the road to ninth. That allowed NM Racing’s Max Huber to claim a place on the overall podium and the Am class win from fourth-placed Day, who charged back from his penalty and passed NM’s Alex Papadopulous in the closing stages.
Knopp recovered to fifth to take the Pro-Am class win, with Rennhofer coming back from his first corner trauma to complete the overall top six.
RACE 3
GT4WS saved the best until last as Lebbon and Day put on the duel of the Gedlich Racing season.
The Forsetti Aston in Porter’s hands led the hour-long endurance race from the start as Meakin dropped from pole position to an initial fourth, before quickly clawing a place back from Rennhofer’s Porsche Cayman at Turn 7.
The race settled into a familiar pattern, as Porter’s black Aston Martin led Marchewicz’s green Merdedes and Meakin’s yellow McLaren in a train. Meakin then picked off Marchewicz into Turn 4 on lap nine and hunted down Porter, who triggered the pitstops five laps later as he passed the Forsetti entry over to Day.
Meakin ran two laps longer before handing over to Lebbon, who emerged just in front of Day – but the new co-champion was fully up to speed and took the lead into Turn 5. Now the duel was on.
Lap after lap, the two cars ran nose to tail, the McLaren probing at the Aston as Lebbon pressed for an edge. He couldn’t find one but came close on a number of occasions. On the 20th lap, the pair ran side by side through Turns two and three, with Day somehow switching to the inside line for Turn 4 to keep his lead. The pair avoided contact, putting on a show of fast, skilful and ultimately fair driving.
Then they came up to lap the Porsche Cayman GT4 CS of Dennis Bohn, who baulked Day from Turn 10 to 13 – and Lebbon had his chance. He made his move on the inside of the penultimate turn, but with all four wheels off the circuit to cut in front of Day. Wisely, he soon handed back the lead to avoid a penalty.
The battle raged on, with Lebbon plotting his final attempt – and it came once again at Turn 13 on the very last lap. The McLaren gathered speed through the turn, with all four wheels again breaking track limits on the inside. But then, it seemed, so had Day in his defence – which is perhaps why the final result stood.
Lebbon had the greater momentum and dived inside at the final corner, emerging with the lead and a victory to remember.
“I’d kind of lost hope a bit because he’d pulled a gap as the tyres fell away,” said a remarkably cool Lebbon. “I thought I had one opportunity, I might as well go for it – and it worked. It was good to win in the end. I overtook him once but had to give it back because it was a bit questionable, but it’s good to come across the line first.”
“I was shaking like a wet dog,” said a smiling Meakin who had been watching nervously from the pitlane. “At the end, I thought they’d won it, I turned around and then all of a sudden I heard shouts. Then Tom went past first.”
Behind the pair, Ekelchik and Rennhofer beat Marchewicz and Mesch to the final podium spot, but the Schnitzelalm duo had done enough to beat their Elite rivals to second in the championship. Kronberg and Knopp secured the Pro-Am class victory, while Charles Dawson and Gjerdrum emerged on top from an entertaining race-long duel with CV Performance team-mates Michael Makes and Alex Connor.
